Angel Is A Centerfold
by LyricalKris
Summary: The Madonna-whore complex. The idea that women's sexual expression is limited to being virginal or being degraded. Or lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets? Pffft. Where's the fun in that?
1. It Couldn't Be

**Personal note: Just a friendly reminder that my original fiction is available on Amazon. Links are in my profile. Thanks so much to the people who let me know they've bought it. If you like it (okay, okay, even if you didn't), do me a favor and review it on Amazon or Goodreads.**

**Love you all!**

**A/N: So Moflo sent me a story idea. Angel in the Centerfold. Sounds like fun, eh? Obviously I thought so. So this is for her. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: And I'm STILL not SM.**

* * *

It couldn't be her. It just couldn't be.

Edward Cullen blinked at his laptop screen, staring at the photo on the screen. He rubbed his eyes and tried to shake the idea that had settled into his head. The girl in the photo looked like Bella Swan and yet it didn't.

It couldn't be her. It was a girl, a woman, who bore a strong resemblance, but it couldn't be her. It had been over a decade since he'd seen Bella Swan, after all. She was probably married with a kid, her backside pleasingly plump with leftover baby weight. Or maybe she was a business woman in crisp power suits. Or, more likely, she was what she'd always been-a pretty girl in simple jeans and shirts, her brown hair falling straight and long down her back.

Not this.

Edward had been seventeen and living in the tiny town of Forks when he met Bella. With a solid decade of distance, he could admit he had an instant crush on her. Several of the other boys did, but it was different for him, he thought. It was a legitimate crush if there was such a thing.

In a town as small as Forks, new people were a commodity. He knew from experience having moved there only three years before. His family moved frequently for his mother's job, but each new place was a different experience.

In Forks, where everyone knew everyone else, everyone was curious about Bella. The boldest of the girls offered friendship and the bolder boys asked her out. They weren't really interested in _her_. That much was obvious. Edward overheard the boys talking behind her back, wondering how far she would go and if this big city girl-she was from Phoenix after all-had more experience than the long list of country bumpkins they'd been with. The girls gossiped because they knew her mother had left her father-Forks's chief-of-police-when she was just a baby and if her mother had raised her, what was _Bella _capable of?

Being the new kid at Forks High was like throwing a food pellet into a koi pond. The other fish fell all over themselves trying to get at her.

Edward's curiosity-turned-crush was different from that. For one thing, it didn't exist at first. Maybe it was that he wondered what the other kids had said when it was him, his elder brother, Emmett, and his sister, Alice, walking down the halls the first week they were there. Not all of the speculation about Bella was bad or lewd, of course, but, self-conscious little twerp that he was back then, he could imagine what their first impression of him had been. The idea left him with a foul taste in his mouth, and so conversations about Bella had instantaneously annoyed him on her behalf.

But, as Forks was indeed a know-everyone kind of town, she was in his sphere and on his radar. He couldn't help but get to know her a little bit. She was his lab partner in Biology, and they passed in the hall several times a day. As the days turned into weeks, his curiosity was piqued.

She was just different. Not in the way some people are unique from anyone and everyone else. It was more personal than that. For Edward, there were all the other kids, and then there was her. She stood out for him. The novelty of her wore off and she was assimilated into the everyday crowd of Forks High, but for Edward, she only became a brighter star in his sky.

Even a decade later, Edward didn't understand why he thought it was so adorable that, most days, she wore an oversized, man's jacket. The way she drowned in it was cute, and it stoked his curiosity. Why a man's jacket? Whose? And why did she only rarely take it off?

One day, in Biology, she got his attention and pointed surreptitiously to a girl at the table near them. Despite the cold-as-always weather, she was wearing a skirt as short as dress-code regulations allowed. "You see how her skin is kind of mottled red?" she whispered.

Her breath, warm on his ear, made him shiver. He nodded.

"What's happening is, her blood is moving closer to the surface, trying to protect her because her body thinks she's freezing." She looked at him, her eyebrow arched. "Why would you want to be so cold all the time?"

They were never friends-not really. They were friendly with each other whenever their circles had to collide, but they were never in the same circle.

"You could ask her out, you know," his sister said more than once when she caught him glancing across the cafeteria at her.

But back then, Edward wasn't the most confident of people. Maybe it was the glasses and the nasty case of acne. Maybe it was all the moving around that had him so unsure of himself and his ability to even talk to a girl he actually _liked_. Maybe it was because he felt different than his peers.

Then again, that was part of the reason he was curious about Bella.

He'd noticed, for instance, that when the conversation turned to sex-and with high school kids, sex was never far from their minds-her cheeks got as red hot as his usually did, and she looked not disgusted but at least shy.

How did all these other kids talk about sex so boldly? Why were they so aware of their sexuality? Was Edward _wrong _because he had no experience and, more than that, he wasn't so eager for experience? Maybe eager wasn't the right word. He'd thought about it. He wondered what it would be like, but it wasn't as easy as the other kids made it seem. It wasn't easy to talk about it, let alone do any of those things.

Somehow, when he looked at Bella and saw the way her bashfulness seemed to match his, he didn't feel like as much of a freak.

When Alice pressed him, he shut her down. "What's the point?" he'd asked. "We're just going to be gone again."

They moved to Alaska shortly before his senior year, and he'd never spoken to Bella again. When he thought about her he remembered her quiet prettiness, the small smile that tugged at one corner of her mouth or the other, the randomness of their interactions. Just like when they were in high school, she stuck out in his memories for no firm reason that he could pin down. She was the biggest crush of his childhood, and when he looked at girls-women, now-it often crossed his mind that there were so few like Bella. What was wrong with innocent and sweet?

But the more Edward looked at the picture on his computer, the more he realized he wasn't seeing things.

The sweet, innocent teenage girl of his memories had grown up. She was there in front of him, laying down with her head tilted back, looking at the camera with big bedroom eyes and a smile that dared him to come closer. Every curve of her body was on display, her most intimate parts covered with naughty lingerie. White silky undies and a garter belt. Her hair was wild about her face. She was wearing makeup and she was wearing it well-dark around the eyes in that way that made women look deliciously wicked. Ruby red lips that begged to be kissed.

No.

Ruby red lips that he couldn't help but imagine wrapped around his cock.

Edward slammed his laptop shut, his heart pounding erratically, and his dick gone hard in his pants. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to banish the image from his head.

She had a tattoo along her side that disappeared into her panties, and he couldn't stop thinking about it.

How? How had the girl in the over-sized men's jacket, the girl who blushed at the mention of sex, the good girl in his head that stood in stark contrast to the over-sexualized vixens that pervaded society, become this?

The internet generation's answer to girly magazines were the teasing photos on social media sites like tumblr. The post that had come across Edward's dashboard was all Bella, the proverbial angel in the centerfold.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you to jfka06, barburella and songster. **

**So. What are we thinking? This fic will begin in earnest when Foolish Hearts is done… no more than two weeks, I expect.**


	2. Wine and Cheese

**A/N: Oh, lovelies. Of course the fic was named after the song. :) That was Mo's request - fic the song. :D Guess she figures I should start living up to the lyrical part of my name, eh?**

**I'm going to warn you up front not to assume and to remember we're in Edward's head and Edward's head alone. :)**

* * *

"Spit it out. What's wrong?"

Edward looked over the table at his twin sister and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Alice raised her eyebrow right back, and she was better at it. "You're chewing your straw to death. Your oral fixation is always worse when something's going on in your head. So spit it out." She wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes when he quite literally spit the straw out. "What's wrong?" she asked again in exaggerated irritation.

He considered the question. He knew better than to think he could brush it off. When his sister caught a scent, it was impossible to shake her. More than that, it was unnatural to keep things from his twin, and this seemed like a big deal. Even in his head the words sounded ridiculous. He couldn't tell her everything because it _was _ridiculous.

"You keep in touch with the people in Forks, don't you?" he asked, aiming for a tone of nonchalance. He knew full well what the answer was. When Facebook got popular, Alice had wasted no time in finding the friends she'd collected from all their moves.

"A few. At least, I'm Facebook friends with them. I talk with Jessica Stanley every now and again, though. She's getting married to Eric Yorkie, which is hilarious. She hated him in high school, remember?"

He didn't, but it hardly mattered. Alice continued speaking without waiting for his answer. "Anyway, why do you ask?" She made her eyes wide and innocent as she took a sip of her drink, looking at him over the rim of her coffee cup. "Anyone in particular you were thinking about? As if I have to ask."

"What does that mean?"

She straightened up, putting her cup down. "Come on, Edward. This isn't rocket science. In all the places we've lived you never really got close to anyone, so I know you're probably not thinking of old friends. You got along with Ben Cheney okay, but I bet you didn't even remember his name."

That was taking it a bit far. Edward indeed remembered Ben Cheney, but he said nothing because he hadn't thought of the kid-the man, now-in years.

"You have to be thinking of… Oh, God. What was her name?" Alice snapped her fingers. "That girl you were mooney-eyed over. Becky? Betsy? I know. Becca!"

"Bella."

The victorious grin on Alice's face told him he'd been played. Of course she remembered the girl's name. She had an uncanny memory. She was just looking for ammunition, and she'd doubtless found it in the defensive note in his voice. "Oh, right," she said, her tone saccharine sweet. "Bella Swan. The chief of police's kid. I sent her a friend request a while back, but she declined it." Alice shrugged, indicating it wasn't a big deal.

"I wasn't in love with her."

"Oh, please."

"I didn't-" Edward started, but then he stopped. He reminded himself it wasn't mature to hit his sister before he went on. "Fine. Whatever."

"So she was the one you were asking about then?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Edward narrowed his eyes. "Who knows? I was reminiscing. Do I need a reason?"

"Since that was obviously not the real reason, yeah. You're going to have to tell me at some point, but I'll let it go for now." Alice leaned forward on the table, her head cocked to the side in that way she had when she was collating data, as she called it. He always imagined there were strings of code running behind her eyes. "Let's see. What do I know about Bella Swan? I know she left Forks after high school, but that's no surprise." She tapped her fingers on the table, but after another moment, she shook her head. "Nope. I got nothing. But don't worry. I'll get my people on it."

Edward threw a balled up napkin at her. "You don't have people, you loon."

"Says you," she said and stuck her tongue out at him.

_**~0~**_

A week later, Edward had almost forgotten he asked Alice about Bella. He hadn't forgotten about Bella. In fact, he'd been back to her site more times than he wanted to admit.

He couldn't get over it. He wasn't going to get over it.

But he forgot he'd involved his sister, however little, in it until she dragged him out for dinner away from Los Angeles. She claimed she wanted to try a new restaurant she'd heard of. In Orange County.

They arrived only to find out that the restaurant wasn't open. For reasons that, at the time, defied Edward's imagination, Alice insisted on going in anyway. The door was open even though the space inside was in an obvious state of disarray-tarp strewn everywhere and chairs and tables stacked haphazardly. But his twin marched inside as though she owned the place.

There were two women hard at work. One, a statuesque blond, was behind the counter cleaning nooks and crannies. She was perhaps a few years older than he was and stunning to look at. She, however, was not the one who caught his eye.

The other woman was a brunette-a short one. She was perched at the top of a ladder, stretched up on her tip toes, working to paint the hideous, salmon colored walls with primer.

Edward had no idea what the hell he thought he was doing. More to the point, he didn't think about what he was doing. He saw her on the ladder leaning too far over, stretching up while the thing teetered perilously, and he shouted, "Look out!"

What ensued was nothing short of complete chaos. The brunette, understandably startled by a man who was not supposed to be in her shop yelling at her, jolted. The movement threw her off balance. Her arms pinwheeled, sending primer everywhere, and she fell, paint cans and brushes raining down after her.

Edward raced forward, but he was brought up short by the blond woman pushing him back. "Buddy, what the hell?" she yelled, sparing a glare in his direction before she turned to the brunette. "Bella, are you okay? What's broken?"

The damage couldn't have been too bad as the brunette was sitting up, obviously conscious. Though Alice tried to hold him back-he was, after all, a strange man who had barged into their obviously closed restaurant shouting-Edward rushed over and dropped down to his knees in front of the brunette, intending to see if she was really all right.

She raised her head and the whole world slowed to a stop. Edward froze, the breath leaving his body as though he'd belly flopped into a pool filled with concrete.

There was something strangely macabre about the way the primer splashed over her-dripping from her hair, spreading from her cheek, dashed on her clothes like a blood spatter pattern, stark white instead of deep crimson. But that wasn't what sent Edward's world into a dizzying tailspin. It was the deep brown eyes that caught him. Bedroom eyes, he thought, though that didn't make any sense given she was looking back at him in confusion. Her lips were fleshy peach and parted in an 'o' of surprise, but he saw ruby red turned up in a sexy smirk.

Bella, the blond woman had called her.

Edward was too disoriented to know how to react. There was increasing evidence the woman in front of him was Bella Swan. Bella's was the face and body that had flashed through his mind approximately every seven seconds for the last few weeks. Ever since he'd seen her in…

Well, it was probably better not to think about it just then.

He knew he was staring but it took him a full minute to figure out she was staring right back.

She turned to blink at the blond, her expression and her voice dazed. "How hard did I hit my head?"

_**~0~**_

There was a cacophony of raised, confused voices but eventually everything was sorted out.

Alice spun the truth a bit for obvious reasons, explaining that she'd been having a conversation about vegan dining with Jessica when she happened to mention both that Bella was opening up a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and that she had moved to southern California right after high school.

"You remembered me?" Bella asked, still absently searching her head for bumps that didn't exist-she'd fallen more on her arm and ass than anything.

"Sure," Alice said. "Did you remember us?"

Edward may have been imagining things, but he thought he saw Bella glance at him. "I remember you," she said, returning her gaze to some undetermined point at her paint-smeared knee.

By then the blond, Bella's business partner, Tanya, had finished helping Bella stretch each of her limbs, testing to see that everything worked. She seemed fine-suffering from no more than bumps, bruises, and a sore arm. Both sincerely sorry and insatiably curious, Edward asked if he could take them all out for dinner. They agreed.

Bella went home to clean the paint off while Edward and Alice stayed behind to help Tanya clean up the mess.

Edward worked in silence. He couldn't get his head to wrap around a thought. The duality of the Bella he'd found online-vixen temptress, all tattooed skin and perfect curves-and the woman he'd re-met just a half hour before. _That _Bella was more along the lines of what he'd imagined she'd be like-comfortable in faded jeans and a tatty shirt she wouldn't mind getting ruined by paint.

It took him a while to recognized the anxiety that had his skin prickling. He was turned on, but it was a confused state of being. He didn't want to be turned on, and he honestly wasn't sure if he should feel guilty about it. There was also a sense that he couldn't wait to see her again, mostly because he wanted to know what she would wear. It was one thing to come across her when she was painting, quite another to see what she looked like dressed in normal, casual clothes.

_Get a grip, _he thought in the direction of his lower extremity. The damn thing was annoyingly alert. _It's not like she's going to show up in anything from that site._

Still, before he could help himself, he pictured her in Daisy Dukes, a jean vest, and nothing else. He closed his eyes, glad he was kneeling and facing away from his sister and Tanya. He was annoyed because she'd put those images in his head, and now he couldn't stop thinking about what she was going to look like when she walked in the door.

And what she looked like underneath her clothes.

Footsteps approached and entered the open door of the restaurant. Edward counted to ten before he looked over. Bella was standing there. She looked…

Normal. Beautiful but normal.

She was wearing jeans-cut better and not as faded as the ones she'd had on before-and a nice shirt. Her hair was loose-free of paint but also not falling in silky waves of one of her photos. She had on some makeup, but only enough to accentuate her features. It was a natural look.

Edward couldn't tell if he was disappointed.

Tanya went to her and held her arm out, clucking her tongue at the bruise that was spreading from her elbow to her wrist. "You're sure it's not broken."

"Yeah." Bella winced. "Moving it isn't the most pleasant experience, but I'll live."

"I'm really sorry," Edward said for the hundredth time.

She looked at him and smiled. "I told you. Don't worry about it. Or, if you prefer, take us to The Twisted Vine, ply us with good wine, and you'll be forgiven several times over."

Edward smiled back. "Deal."

After Bella and Tanya had locked up the restaurant, they made their way a few blocks over to Fullerton's busy downtown. The Twisted Vine was a wine bar, and soon enough they were settled with wine and tapas. Soon they fell into the natural conversation of old acquaintances trying to find a common ground.

"The first day I was at school, Jessica had a whole list of kids who had moved to Forks since kindergarten," Bella said. "I remember thinking it was funny because she talked about them like they were collector's items or something." She looked up at Edward and flashed him a grin. "You two and your brother made up half the list."

"Who else?" Edward asked.

"Mike Newton came in middle school." She turned to Tanya. "Handsy, horny bastard. I made the mistake of going to prom with him senior year. He was sweet for the most part. He kept trying to dance with his hands on my ass, but whatever. That was the style back then."

"Back then?" Tanya scoffed. "Girl, next time I go clubbing, you're coming with me. Obviously you haven't gotten out much."

Edward bit the inside of his cheek. Bella just scoffed before she continued her story.

"After the dance, he just assumed we were going to have sex because he thought that was what _everyone _did on senior prom. Like he thought 'Will you go to prom with me?' was code for 'lets get it on' and all the dresses and limos and bad fruit punch was a set up for lying to our parents." She shook her head, rubbing her arms as though self-conscious. "He was persistent for a while there."

Edward felt as though ice had been dumped down his back.

Was that it then? Survivors of sexual abuse sometimes had a warped sense of their own sexuality. They were often promiscuous and kinky, pushing their limits and their partners limits as a means of exerting control where it had been robbed before.

Was that what had happened to make Bella do what she did?

"Anyway," Bella said, drawing Edward out of his dark thoughts. "That's Mike Newton. Before Mike, there were two kids who moved to Forks in elementary school, but they had moved away again before any of us got there. Who knows what their names were."

"Sounds like unless you were born there, you probably wanted to get the hell out," Tanya said.

"We didn't stick around, that's for sure," Alice said. "We were there halfway through freshman year and all of junior year. But then again, we didn't leave because Forks sucks."

"Though it does," Edward said, and Bella snickered.

"Didn't you go to Alaska?" Bella asked.

"We did."

Tanya wrinkled her nose. "Alaska. That's so random."

"Random is a good description of our moving habits back then." Edward tilted back the rest of his wine and signaled the waiter that he'd have another.

"Army brat?" Tanya asked.

Edward and Alice shook their heads in unison. "Mom manages the restoration of historic homes and buildings," Edward said. "She does the research, consults historical experts, and oversees the work done."

"That's really cool, actually." Bella rolled the edge of the glass along her lip in an absent way that nonetheless caught and held Edward's attention. "What the hell was she doing in Forks?"

Edward chuckled. That had been his thought exactly when they first arrived in Forks. Did the town have any buildings worth saving? "You'd be surprised at how many of Forks's buildings have historical value, but it was actually a building in Port Angeles she was working on that time. We got stuck in Forks because they had an opening in the hospital, so it was convenient for Dad since his hours were weird."

"Well, I guess it was good for us it worked out that way," Bella said. "We wouldn't all be here now if you'd stayed in Port Angeles."

Edward watched the timid smile that tugged at her lips as she looked first at Alice but then, lingeringly, at him. Warmth spread across his chest like spilled ink on paper. He held her gaze. "I guess that means it's also a good thing you wanted to get out of Forks or we wouldn't be _here._"

Her smile turned back to the more confident one she'd been wearing all evening. "God yes. There wasn't any way I was staying there past high school. I love my dad, and I'm glad I got to spend some time with him, but I'm just not a Washington person. The cold and the wet…" She shuddered. "I don't like it."

Tanya elbowed her, a wicked glint in her eyes. "If Bella's all wet, she prefers to be hot."

Bella's cheeks, already pink from the wine, darkened. She darted a look from Edward to Alice and then down to the table as she downed the last of her second glass of wine. "You're terrible, Tanya."

Edward cleared his throat, unreasonably irritated at Tanya's crude remark. He wasn't a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but they were virtual strangers. "So does that mean you've always been a California girl?" he asked, getting them back on track.

"I lived in the area when I was little," she said. "I guess I had good memories. It's not as hot here as it is in Phoenix where I grew up, but it's still warm and sunny."

"Unlike Forks," Alice said, and Bella nodded.

"Right. Unlike Forks and most of Washington. So I applied to colleges down here, and here I am."

Edward straightened up, realizing only when the waiter came by with more wine that he'd been leaning across the table. He picked up his glass and tilted it, clinking it against hers. "Well, I'll toast to that."

_**~0~**_

The conversation had flowed naturally. Edward and Alice related how they'd followed their parents after high school from Alaska to Europe and spent two years as hired hands with their mother before she moved on to the next project in California. They'd gotten into rival schools- USC for Edward and UCLA for Alice-and had stayed.

By that time, they'd all had more than enough wine to get to the point where everything any of them said was profoundly interesting or uproariously funny. Tanya and Alice had gotten enthralled in something that bored Edward to tears, so he offered to walk Bella home so they could talk.

They walked in amiable silence for a time, but then Bella gave a slight, wry laugh.

"What?" Edward asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said too quickly.

"No. What is it?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking?"

"Nothing. It's embarrassing. Just forget it."

He looked at her, noticing she was looking anywhere but him. "You can't make statements like that and expect me not to die of curiosity."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes and her head to look over at him. "If you die of curiosity, don't expect me to feel sorry for you. I will laugh in your corpse's face, you dramatic ass."

He smirked. "Just tell me."

Something flickered in her eyes as she looked at him, and all at once he could see perfectly the shy, innocent girl who had sat beside him in Biology. "Fine." She took a deep breath. "When we were in high school… I had a huge crush on you."

Edward's step faltered. He didn't know what to say at first, and he was too busy fighting the ridiculous grin that threatened to pull his lips to either side of his cheeks.

Bella made a disgruntled noise. "I told you. It's embarrassing. God, I'm a little drunk. Just forget it."

He touched her arm lightly. "I can't forget about it."

"No?"

"No. I, uh…" _Oh, for fuck's sake. _Edward knew he was blushing. Blushing, for fuck's sake, as though he was that awkward, pimply-faced kid again. _That _kid would have had no clue what to do if a girl told him she had a crush on him. In fact, Edward of now really had no clue with to do with that information. Who would have wanted the the kid he'd been? "I had a crush on you too."

She stopped short and he turned to face her. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah. The huge kind," he said with a grin, echoing her sentiment.

The air around them turned. They were standing so close together, too close to be almost perfect strangers. Both a little drunk, they swayed a bit, each of them pressing into each other's intimate space, fingers grazing sides accidentally. For some reason, Edward's heart was threatening to pound out of his chest.

Her tongue darted out to lick her lips.

"I wanted to ask you to prom," he said suddenly, unaware he was going to make that confession until it was out there.

She was staring at his mouth. "I think three boys asked me out that year."

Something in Edward's gut curled at the idea. "Oh?"

"Kids fighting over the shiny toy," she said, her eyes finally meeting his. "I would have said yes to you."

"Oh."

He wished he had known that. For a lot of reasons, he wished he'd known. He looked at her lips when her tongue darted out again.

She shifted her feet in a stumble. He put his hand out to steady her only to end up rocking himself. Then it was her hand on his arm, holding him until his balance was restored. He swallowed hard. "I should get you home."

"Right," she said and nodded.

They started walking again, and true to his word, Edward walked her home. He squeezed her hand at the door, told her he was sorry again, but he was glad they'd reconnected, and he left her house with her phone number.

* * *

**A/N: Many thanks to barburella and songster.**

**SO!**

**What are we thinking, chaps?**


	3. A Kink In The Plans

It was definitely her.

Edward had been conversing with Bella for a solid week and a half now on Facebook. He'd followed links posted on her Facebook page and found her across social media. Twitter, Tumblr, she had it all under Bella Swan.

Ramona Ryden also had Twitter and Tumblr...and Bella Swan's face.

On one Google Chrome tab, Edward was talking with Bella about how, thanks to dancing Groot, he couldn't get the Jackson Five song from the end of _Guardians of the Galaxy_ out of his head. On another tab, Ramona Ryden had responded to another Tumblr user's slut shaming post.

"See girls, this is having respect for your body," the original text claimed along with a picture of a young woman, conservatively and prettily dressed. That post was adorned by hashtags such as #THISisAnAppropriateSelfie and #DontHaveToPostNudeToGetLove

"So is this," Mona Ryden had returned, and posted a picture of Bella, her eyes bright, her arms spread wide, gloriously topless. Her hashtags included #NudeandComfortable #IfYoureNot #RespectMeAnyway.

The pictures had been posted five minutes ago, mid-conversation with Edward. There had been a few minutes between responses in their conversation-not unusual, but the timing was coincidental. Had she taken that picture in between speaking with him?

He couldn't shake the image of her sitting at her computer in the same room the photo was taken in, dancing and at least half nude. It was fucking with his head. How was he supposed to concentrate on a talking tree when he was thinking of what she looked like, her hands cupping one breast, circling her thumb over a pert, pretty nipple. He pictured her at her desk, head tilted back, lips parted as she panted, and then she moaned.

Edward shook his head, swallowing a moan of his own. He glared at the ceiling, irritated, but he didn't know who with. He hadn't come up with those kinds of visions himself. There were plenty of videos that left little to his imagination.

Bella's Facebook messenger flashed again, catching his attention. His throat tightened when he saw it was a YouTube link. Was she really…

He clicked and instantly felt foolish. It was a video from a woman who'd made her own dancing Groot out of a Dancing Flower toy. There might have been a joke in there about dancing wood, but there was nothing at all erotic about it at all.

"You're an idiot, Cullen," he muttered. Of course she wasn't going to link him to one of her videos. They were talking about comic book movies for chrissakes. She wasn't going to punctuate her enjoyment of PG13 movie with an x-rated masturbation video. Chris Pratt was an attractive sweetheart of a man, but still, he wasn't spank bank material.

"Hey, Louie Loopy."

Edward craned his head all the way back, surreptitiously hitting the right keys to close his browser. "Remind me again why you have a key to my place?" he asked as his sister came in his room. He hadn't heard her come in, which he supposed was why she was calling him names.

Alice quirked an eyebrow. "Little brother, you don't have to hide your porn from me. We shared a laptop in Europe, remember? I know the kinds of kinky shit you get into. Is it tentacle or preggo porn this time?"

"Anal figging," he said without missing a beat. "What do you want, little sister?"

"You weren't answering your phone, probably because it was on the kitchen counter." She held the thing up with a dry look. As she did, it chimed with his Facebook notification.

Edward lunged for it, but Alice dodged neatly away. It only took her a few seconds to pull up his chat with Bella. Damn technology, allowing him to be logged into the same program from several different platforms at once. Alice danced around the room, playing keep away as she scrolled.

"Look at this. You guys are such dorks. Dissecting comic book canon versus the film version of characters?" She laughed, finally letting him snatch the phone back. "So when's the first date?"

"There's no date."

"What? Why?"

"I'm not interested."

"Who are you trying to kid, buddy? I was actually there last Saturday, though seeing as you only had eyes for Bella, I'm not surprised you forgot. You couldn't be more into her if you were actually inside her right there on the table."

"You're disgusting."

"And you're just about as red as a blood moon." She put her hands on her hips. "What's the real issue? You're not usually gun-shy with girls. I know it can't be that you don't think _she's _into _you._ She was staring at you just as hard, and you're not an oblivious idiot."

Edward thought about telling her, but it seemed so unchivalrous to air Bella's dirty laundry. The fact Alice and her "people" hadn't figured out Bella had her own soft-core porn website

told him that she didn't want her friends to know. "It's just not a good idea. Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?"

His sister pinned her with a sharp look. "Jasper wants to know if you're coming over. We're going to start the second season of_ Orange is the New Black _in twenty minutes."

"Tonight? Are you insane? You know we don't know when to stop once we've started. We're going to end up watching the whole damn season tonight, and we're going to be zombies at work tomorrow."

"Blah. Blah. Blah. Why don't you want to date Bella?"

"Why is this so important to you?"

"Because you're acting weird."

"Your face is weird."

She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"FIne. I'll order pizza, and I'll be over in twenty minutes," Edward said. He stood up and took her by the shoulders, guiding her out of his apartment.

She put up a minimal amount of resistance. "Tell me why you won't ask Bella out."

"I will bring the beer if you will get the hell out of my apartment and leave me alone for twenty minutes."

"Well, if you wanted to punch the clown, you could just say so."

He closed the door in her face. She pounded on it. "You know there's no shame in fem-dom porn. I bet Bella would be okay with smacking your ass with a riding crop."

Edward opened the door again. "Why the hell did you say that?"

Alice furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

"Why would you say she would do that? The riding crop. Why would you say something like that?"

She gaped at him. "I was joking."

"That's a hell of a thing to joke about. You don't know her. Not really."

"Whoa." She held her hands up. "What the hell is going on right now?"

"Goodbye, Alice." He closed his door again.

She pounded on the door and shouted a few protests, but Edward ignored them. His sister knew him well. She only stayed long enough to make sure her displeasure was well noted. Then the pounding stopped.

By then, Edward had made it back to his room. He fell back on his bed with a grunt of frustration, his arm thrown over his eyes. He was going out of her mind. Alice had every right to be angry at him. They were twins. They didn't keep secrets from each other. There'd been very few exceptions throughout their lives.

This girl and her dual identity was driving him crazy.

Edward reached blindly for his laptop and pulled it to him. Settling it on his tummy, he typed out a response to the message Bella had sent. He tapped the edge of his laptop, thinking.

Alice was right; he wasn't gun-shy, and he was attracted to Bella. If she were any other girl… No, that wasn't right. If she were his Bella, the girl he'd had such a big crush on in high school, nothing would have stopped him from charming her. He wasn't the boy he'd been once. He was confident. If there was only Bella Swan to consider, the decision would have been a no-brainer.

But then there was Ramona Ryden.

Edward pulled up her website again and navigated to one of the more recent photosets. In it, Bella was done up in dominatrix gear-skintight black leather, garters, blood red lips and midnight dark eyeshadow. She held a riding crop and beckoned at the camera.

_Someone's been a bad, bad boy, _the caption read.

Alice didn't know how close to the truth she'd been.

Ramona Ryden looked at him with erotic wickedness in her gaze while Bella Swan went off on a diatribe about Marvel vs DC Comicbook movies and how DC had said a Wonder Woman movie would be a bad idea for various bullshit reasons. Edward smiled at the mini rant, charmed by her passion.

His conflicting thoughts about Bella and Ramona weren't going to resolve themselves.

He tapped on the laptop again and moved his fingers over the keys. In the next second, he was typing out the one thing he'd wanted to say for a week and a half.

**Can I take you to dinner? This weekend?**

On the message screen, Bella's name appeared followed by an ellipsis letting him know she was typing a message for an irritating five minutes-at least it felt like five minutes-before her message popped up.

_**Like a date?**_

He laughed, somehow pleased with the idea she'd obviously struggled to find those three simple words.

They were weighty words, and as he considered them, he remembered the electricity in the air when he walked her home. He remembered how she swayed, stumbling a little, getting closer to him.

He'd wanted to kiss her. Sweetly. Slowly.

He wanted to do filthy things to Ramona Ryden.

He wanted to know why Bella wanted to go on a date when Ramona was a skeleton in her closet, and he wanted to know what else was in there.

That was a lot of responsibility for three little words. It was just a date. There was no promise where it would go. And if nothing else, it was a means to an end. He'd be expected to ask questions, to pry in the name of polite conversation.

**Yeah, a date. A decade too late?**

_**Hah. Seventeen-year-old me was a sucky date, and not in the good way.**_

"Oh, really." For some reason, Edward felt ever so slightly scandalized at the flirtation-how quickly Bella became Ramona.

Then again, a little flirtation never hurt anyone, right? And two could play at that game.

_**~0~**_

"We're going to be dead at work tomorrow," Jasper said, his head lolling on the back of the couch.

"I hate to say I told you so."

"Don't lie, little brother," Alice said, getting up to stretch. "You love to say I told you so."

"Yes, well. Anyone who says they don't like being right is lying. Also, bite me, little sister."

"Nah. You smell funny." She stretched up onto her tip toes and let out a breath. "Anyway. I need a bio break before we move on to the next episode. Be right back."

The room was silent for a few seconds, but then Jasper began to chuckle. He was staring up at the ceiling, and Edward leaned his head up to look too. Seeing nothing at all funny, he turned his head back toward his soon-to-be brother-in-law. "What?"

"So the implication earlier was the Big Boo chick lost her service dog because she let it go downtown on her."

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" Edward drawled. The so called implication had been pretty blatant on the show. "That was gross. Funny but gross."

"Yeah. It just reminded me of something. You remember when we were in college and you found that site? You know, with the girls and the animals?"

Edward groaned, curling in on himself and wrapping his arms over his ears. "Oh, God. Why the hell would you bring that up? That was traumatic as hell. Oh, man."

Jasper cackled. "Yeah, exactly. You screamed when you saw it. You actually screamed."

"Damn right I screamed. I wasn't looking for that." Edward shuddered. "Jesus. The first picture was a girl with a horse _in _her. Fuck, don't make me remember that shit." He rolled right off the couch and onto his knees, still holding his head in late-night, deliriously-tired melodrama. "Why? Why would you do this to me? I tried so hard to forget."

Jasper was almost howling now. "I still don't understand how it fit or how the thing didn't crush her." He gasped for breath. "How many people do you think die in the name of beast on woman porn?"

"What the hell is going on out here? Have you both lost your minds?"

Edward uncurled himself from the fetal ball to find his sister staring at them, her hands on her hips.

"Edward found horse on woman porn," Jasper said around his laughter.

Alice's eyes bulged. "Is that what you were looking at earlier?"

"What? No," Edward said, still trying to catch his breath from his own laughing fit.

Jasper sat up straight on the couch, wiping tears from his eyes. "Wait. What were you doing earlier?"

"I knew he was looking at something filthy when I went to go get him," Alice said. "But bestiality, Edward? That's just sick."

"It wasn't beastiality. Christ."

Alice's features lit in victory. "So you _were_ looking at porn."

"No!"

Jasper whistled. "Look at him. He's turning red."

"He's been doing that a lot tonight."

"Yeah, it was something raunchy," Jasper said. "Send me the link later. Unless it really was bestiality. Or poop porn. I don't get poop porn either."

"Do you really share porn?" Alice asked, looking between them.

"Eh." Jasper gave a vague shrug. "Sometimes you find something really interesting."

"That's gross. You know there's only one reason you're looking at porn."

"This is the modern age, sugar. If Edward gets his keyboard sticky, that doesn't affect my enjoyment any. The link doesn't get stuck together like pages of a porno mag."

The humor had long since drained out of the situation at least as far as Edward was concerned. He and Alice both made a noise of protest at Jasper's words. "Great. Thanks for that image, babe," Alice said.

Edward didn't say anything. He was too busy trying to choke down the urge to punch his best friend in the face. He didn't like the idea anyone anywhere could forward nudie pictures of Bella to their buddies. The whole thing was really beginning to piss him off.

"So dude. The porn? What the hell was it? I'm trying to figure out what would make you blush."

"Ah, Edward's kind of a prude," Alice said, waving a dismissive hand. "It was probably something tame."

"I'm not a…" Edward closed his eyes and shook his head. "Whatever. There wasn't any porn."

"Sure there wasn't," Alice said.

Jasper patted his shoulder and leaned in. "Send me the really raunchy shit later," he said in a stage whisper.

Edward crossed his arms. "I hate you both."


	4. Serious Business

**A/N: Many thanks to all of you who voted for Snapshots for fic of the month. That's an awesome feeling. Foolish Hearts is up for Fic of the Month August edition.**

**Ooooo and Mina Rivera made me two banners for this story for a review songster did for FicSisters. You can check them out in my profile. The girl is ridic talented. LOVE IT.  
**

* * *

Over the rest of the week, they bantered via text over the logistics of their date. Edward was bemused when Bella offered to drive to LA.

**I asked to take you out to dinner. I should be the one driving to you.**

_**Yeah, but I have a hankering for Electric Lotus. Do you know it?**_

Edward raised an eyebrow. He loved Electric Lotus and told her so.

_**It's settled then. Last time I was there, I ran into Vince Vaughn. Literally. I barrelled into him. He's a solid wall of man.**_

**I'm expected to top Vince Vaughn?**

_**Well, it'd be rude to try to top Vince Vaughn when you're on a date with me, but I'd understand. It is Vince Vaughn.**_

It took him a minute to understand what she meant by topping.

**Vince Vaughn doesn't make the list of the list of people I'd like to top on a date with you.**

_**~0~**_

A couple days later, while Edward was waiting for Bella to arrive, he found himself curious again about what she would wear. It was a date, after all. Women got dolled up for dates all the time. What would that mean for a girl like Bella? Ramona had a number of clothes that might have passed as date clothes.

Edward's hands flexed into fists as he imagined the way other men would look at her if she wore even the most modest of outfits he'd seen in her repertoire from that site of hers. He had no claim on her, and he knew that. Still, he could easily imagine the kinds of things those men would want to do to her. All night long, he'd be hearing their thoughts as easily as if they'd spoken out loud.

This was how idiots ended up in fist fights.

By the time he heard a knock on his door, Edward thought he might have made a mistake. Opening the door, however, proved otherwise.

It was her eyes he saw first. He remembered the thick eyeliner of the dominatrix in one of her videos. The makeup she wore now was a far cry from that. Her eyelashes were thick, her makeup light and natural, drawing attention to her natural beauty. Her eyes held a glint of excitement, and her cheeks pinked when he looked at her a moment longer than was necessary.

"Hi," she said, the one word sounding almost shy.

"Hi." His eyes flicked briefly over her and back up. He smiled.

The dress she was wearing was blue and perfect. It was flirty-a good date dress-and Edward was suddenly smug. Every man in the room would be jealous when he walked in with her on his arm.

Realizing belatedly he was staring, he looked up. An apology died on his lips when he caught her similarly staring at him. They caught each other in the act, and Edward felt the heat of his cheeks that matched the pink tint on hers.

That blush, the upward tick of her mouth as she smiled sheepishly, her eyes bright on his, and that dress that hugged her in just the right way… He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her very badly. She had a power over him that made his thoughts thick and his impulses seem more important than they would normally be.

He had the feeling she wouldn't rebuff him if he tried to kiss her then. Would it be because she felt this same pull or because of her other proclivities?

With some effort, he shook off the question and cleared his throat. "Do you mind if we walk? It's only a couple of blocks."

"I noticed. I wouldn't mind the walk."

He locked the door of the apartment and fell into step beside her.

As they passed the bottom story, the door on the last apartment opened, and, much to Edward's dismay, his sister popped her head out. "Hey, Bella."

Bella stopped and quirked an eyebrow. "Hey, Alice."

"Text me if you need me to call and rescue you. I'm great at getting people out of bad dates."

"I can and will actually kill you, little sister," Edward said, glaring daggers at his twin.

Alice smiled sweetly. "Look, if you're as charming a date as you say you are, you have no need to worry, little brother."

Edward flipped her the bird and took Bella's hand, drawing her down the street.

"Why do you call her little sister if she calls you little brother?" Bella asked when they were a safe distance away.

He rolled his eyes but smiled. "Alice was born at 11:52 on June 19th, and I was born at 12:07 on June 20th. She doesn't like to let me forget that. But she was also a full pound smaller than me and has been smaller ever since."

"So little brother and literally little sister."

"Exactly."

They chatted easily as they walked, their fingers brushing every so often, and Edward had to fight the impulse to take her hand.

This woman was confusing the hell out of him. He prided himself on playing a long game. He'd had a few one night stands, and he didn't really enjoy them. Sex was great, but sex with someone he knew was better. He was a take-it-slow kind of guy when he was really interested. And he was _really _interested in Bella.

The problem was he wanted to do too many things at once. He wanted to woo her in that old fashioned way that made his sister roll her eyes. He wanted to recoil because, hello? Anyone and everyone could see her nude body for a reasonable price. There wasn't a point in getting through the getting-to-know-you, wooing stage when there was no way it could work out. And that raised the interesting question, what the heck was he doing there in the first place.

Then there was the fact he was one of the people who knew what she looked like without her clothes on, and it was impossible to forget it when she was there beside him. He'd watched her spread her legs for the camera just this morning, how could he not think about her spreading her legs for him, looking at him specifically with those eyes that promised he could have the time of his life?

So, yeah, what to do first? Or at all. It wasn't fair that he was dating her, knowing that she was just as interested in him as he was in her, but also knowing that it couldn't go anywhere. He wasn't a fan of wasting anyone's time, his or hers. Then again, it irked him more than a little that she hadn't told him anything up front, letting him date her despite her proclivities. On that principle alone he should have called off this date.

But then again, he did want to know her story. If she was doing what she was doing for any reason he could help with…

"There's something very important we have to get settled before we get there," Bella said, her tone grave.

Edward stood up straighter, wondering if she was going to tell him after all.

Instead, Bella looped her arm through his, tugging him close so she could speak in undertones. "Do you share plates? You know, family style dining, because I like to graze. You wouldn't deny a girl a chance at good food, would you?"

She said the words in a suggestive tone, batting her eyelashes, making him think dirty thoughts even though her words were innocent. He got the distinct impression he was playing with fire. But then her eyes glinted with humor, and her lips turned up in an impish smile, as though she couldn't quite hold the the illusion of the temptress.

He chuckled. "Family style is the only way to do Indian food." He quirked an eyebrow and leaned closer to her, studiously ignoring that he could feel the heat of her skin. He whispered so near her ear she shivered. "But I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian. I like meat."

She shivered again, the look in her eyes momentarily dazed, but then she tilted her head, pitching her voice low again. "I'm a big fan of meat."

Suddenly it wasn't food Edward was hungry for. But he shook that off and gave her a look. "You own a vegan restaurant."

With that, the conversation swung from suggestive back to a more normal, safe-for-public fare. They got to the restaurant, and Edward put on his most charming grin for the hostess. He slipped her a discreet tip, and they ended up in a cozy booth in the corner.

"I own a vegan and vegetarian restaurant because it's good business sense," Bella said when they'd settled down. "The point of opening a restaurant isn't to feed your own face. The idea is to make money. Tanya and I were hanging around downtown Fullerton and overheard a few college kids bitching about how unhealthy everything is, and you can't go out if you want to eat healthy, and this and that animal cruelty."

"Ah, college-age idealism," he said.

She nodded. "Exactly. Not that it's a bad thing, but the college crowd is good at pet causes, and they were right. The closest vegan and vegetarian place is in Orange. I like it. I like meat too, but you know, Mead's Green Door Cafe has an artichoke and gouda sandwich that is… I had it four days in a row once."

They paused to order very much not vegan food-spicy everything-and then Edward decided it was time for some careful prodding.

"So. You're just now opening up a restaurant. What have you been doing up until then?"

Bella quirked an eyebrow at him. "You mean how have I been making a living?" He nodded and she shrugged. "I have a business degree, because that's the safe degree, right? You can always get a job as long as you know something about business. Yeah." She huffed. "The office environment wasn't for me. Too constricting."

Edward leaned forward, sensing a clue. "Business hours tend to get in the way of doing anything fun."

"Well, that's part of it. But you do what you have to do. That's where I met Tanya. We were working at a company that sold real estate websites. It was terrible. We hit it off because we have the same affliction. The desire to be your own boss disease."

"You have a problem with authority?" That would definitely fit.

They both leaned back when the food came. He was momentarily distracted by the little noise of contentment and ecstasy Bella made when she dragged a piece of naan through the masala sauce. "God, I have dreams about this stuff."

She sighed and looked up at him again. "Anyway. My dad is a cop. I think it's prerequisite for kids with cop parents to have issues with authority." She grinned at him. "But no. That's not really it. It's not that I have a problem. I just prefer not to be under anyone's thumb.

"I think people naturally fall into this rut where they believe all the rules they've set up are necessary. Like being late, for instance. People go insane over tardiness. Depending on where you work, you're talking about someone going berserk because you're ten minutes late."

"Well, they pay you to work from a certain time to a certain time."

She cocked her head. "Do they? Because if I were running a business, what I'd be paying for is the quantity and quality of the work. And I get it. If you have to be the one opening up the business for customers at a certain time or a rep who works the phones, that's one thing. Ten minutes in that regard is imperative. But think about it. I have never seen a person work any shift from beginning to end with no break in between. I'm not talking about legally mandated breaks. I'm talking about the five minutes you take to look at your phone, the ten minute conversation in the hallway, the twenty minutes you spend surfing the Internet. If you tell me you don't do it, I'm going to laugh in your face and call you a liar.

"But people get stuck on minutes. I've seen employees who work their asses off get in trouble and get fired over minutes, for no other reason than someone somewhere got obsessed with a rule that makes no rational sense."

Edward frowned. "But there have to be some rules."

"Sure. But my point is, rules are black and white. Real life is every color under the sun. What's the point of being so stubborn about rules?"

They lapsed into silence, both looking at their food while Edward considered her words. It was a convenient thought, to not believe in rules. It was an excuse if ever he heard one.

"Edward?"

Concentrating on fishing a particularly evasive piece of chicken out of the masala, Edward only hummed. "Hmm?"

"When someone makes a purchase on my website, I can actually see the credit card information. Including the name."

Edward froze, the chicken halfway to his mouth. He breathed in and out before he looked up. She was looking back at him, her expression steady. "That's what you really wanted to know, right? Why I do that instead of working a 'real' job? You could have just asked."

He swallowed hard around the knot of embarrassment and annoyance. "Don't you think it was your responsibility to tell me?"

She cocked her head. "I'm the one who brought it up."

"I mean before. When I asked you out. You should have told me then."

Her eyes narrowed. "You think I should open with that? 'Yeah I'll go on a date with you, but you should know I sell videos of myself naked?'"

"I think that's fair, yeah."

"Uh huh. So you were totally going to tell me you purchase memberships to soft-core porn sites?"

This took him aback. "That's not the same thing."

"No? So you can look at and buy nudie pictures. That's no big deal. But I can't be the one posing in them? That's something that requires full, up front disclosure before the first date?" She stabbed her fork in the air in his direction. "You had no intentions of telling me you've seen me naked."

"Well, if you didn't want people to see you naked-"

"I never said I didn't. I think it's pretty obvious that of the two of us, only one of us has a problem with me being naked."

He made an exasperated noise and pushed his paneer around his plate. "Okay. In general, I don't have a problem with nudity. It's just…" He put down his fork and made an effort to gentle his tone. "I don't understand. You're better than that."

She arched an eyebrow, looking, if anything, even more pissed. "Better than what?"

"Than having so little respect for yourself that you would sell your body when you have another option."

Bella took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm herself before she continued. "This is my favorite thing. People love to talk about having respect for your body, but you ever notice how it's their definition of respect? We all have a body. We're all nude under our clothes. Just because someone put it into your head that we should be ashamed of our natural state of being doesn't mean there's any rationality behind that."

"But-" Edward shut his mouth just as quickly as he'd opened it, realizing abruptly he had no good answer. He was sure there was one-people shouldn't just go around naked after all-but he couldn't find it. "You're a feminist, aren't you?" he asked, switching tactics. "You post a lot of feminist articles and things like that on your Facebook."

She looked wary, as though she already knew where this was going. "Yes, I'm a feminist."

"So how do you rationalize the two ideologies? I've heard the feminist rants against porn."

She huffed, looking amused. "Again, I'd like to point out that you want me to rationalize the idea that I sell it even though you have no problem with the fact you buy it. You're a feminist too, or at least I've seen the articles _you _post."

Bella continued before he could speak to that. "Yes, porn is just another tool put in place to reinforce the idea women are objects. Yes, porn often reinforces unhealthy ideas. It only adds to the misinformation about consent, BDSM, and the standards of what people should be able to do in bed. The list goes on. The porn industry is just one more tool of female oppression, and many women are coerced and taken advantage of as part of that industry."

"Yet you'll be a part of it?"

"Here's a challenge for you. Name an industry in which women aren't oppressed. Any industry. I'll wait." She popped a samosa in her mouth and chewed, watching him.

Edward's cheek twitched. "You know I can't. You want me to agree every industry is male dominated? I do. You know I do. But the porn industry has the added effect of being degrading."

"Yes, and yet even men like you, who can sit here and have an intellectual discussion about it has still bought porn."

Edward opened his mouth but he quickly shut it again. She had proof he'd bought porn. What was he going to say? Usually he didn't bother to buy it seeing as so much of it was available free on the internet but he'd bought the membership to her site because it was hers? Yeah, that didn't sound creepy at all.

"There's the way we wish the world worked and there's reality," Bella said. "Sex is a part of life, and therefore, porn will always be a part of life. I walk down the street, and guys don't see me. They see a nice ass, nice legs, passable tits. That's reality, and there are a whole bunch of men taking advantage of women in order to profit on that fact of life.

"But me? I'm in control of that reality. Like it or not, this-" She gestured at herself. "-is an in-demand commodity. I used that fact to _my _advantage, and even if you think it's degrading to show off my body, can you at least acknowledge the business sense it took to put together a business?"

"You sound so proud," he said, and winced. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. He just found the idea so incongruous to his thoughts. He could understand porn and nude pictures as a means to an ends of making money but to actually take pride in the business?

"Damn right I'm proud, and why shouldn't I be? I'm the one who packages all my media for consumption. I'm the one who came up with the advertising scheme. I'm the one who makes my website profitable and successful."

"If you're so proud of what you're doing, why aren't you more open about it?" he asked, not quite able to take the accusatory note out of his tone. "If Jessica had known you did this, I guarantee my sister would have known."

"Because, again, I deal with reality. There's a difference between the way things ought to be and the way things are. Jessica isn't going to understand what I do, and I don't care enough about her friendship to have this conversation with her."

"But you'll talk to me about it?"

Bella blew out a long breath and spooned some of the paneer onto her naan. "I knew the day after we met again that you were one of my customers." Her lips quirked. "I always check. But even though you knew, you didn't talk to me like I was scum on your shoes. And the fact you aren't afraid to label yourself a feminist is pretty hot."

When she looked up, he saw her fierce expression had turned to one more uncertain, almost shy. "Look, I really like you. I'm not seventeen anymore. I take chances, and I live with the consequences. If you can't get past the idea I have no problem taking my clothes off for profit, fine. I understand that. It wouldn't be the first time. We can be Facebook friends.

"But if it matters, you should know up front I draw my personal boundaries at having sex with other people for money. I don't have a problem with it, but that's my own line." She took a deep breath and sat up straight, her shy look turning into a more confident smile. "If you decide it's something you can work with, I'll tell you one thing." She leaned across the table, dropping her voice again to that flirtatious tone. "There are all kinds of benefits to dating someone who isn't ashamed of her sexuality. Think about it."

* * *

**A/N: Many thanks to barburella and songster, both of whom called me out for Bella's rant-preachyness. They also said there was too much Kris bleeding into the characters.**

**Wait a minute. Does this mean they think I rant/preach all the time?!**

**HUMPH.**

**Also thanks to dizzygrl28 for back up beta.**

**Personal note: I'm currently writing an original fiction with a deaf person as a tertiary character. If anyone out there is familiar with deaf culture and willing to be a prereader (which is a thankless j ob, as Barburella and songster can tell you ;) ), I'd much appreciate it. I want to be as respectful as possible to the culture.**


	5. Balls and Strokes

**A/N: Shorty chapter is short, but I lost my stride with this fic for a moment. Hopefully we're back on track now.**

* * *

As Edward expected, his sister showed up before noon the next day to find out what had happened on his date. She was already half convinced he and Bella were destined. He had to admit it would have made a good story. Mutual high school crushes meet again. It was sister-assisted destiny, and she was probably already planning the wedding.

He tilted his head back, though Alice was just a blur. In his current position, sitting upside-down on his couch, his glasses were resting on his forehead. Still, he could see well enough to know she had her hands on her hips.

"What did you do?" Alice asked.

"What makes you think I did anything?"

"It obviously didn't go well."

Edward sighed. "No, it went surprisingly well." Surprising, because it should have been awkward as hell after Bella called him out about his hypocrisy. But Bella had changed the subject and, after he'd had a chance to catch up, they'd slipped into much easier conversation.

"So what's the problem, little brother?"

He told her.

Alice opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it. "Oh." She walked over to the couch and settled next to him, also upside down.

That was how Jasper found them a few minutes later. He came in and looked at them, hands on his hips. "Sugar, I can understand if your brother needs help rerouting his blood to his big head, but what are _you _doing?"

"Bella has a soft core porn website," Alice said.

"Of which she's the star," Edward added.

For three seconds, there was silence. "Huh," Jasper said. His expression was far off.

"She wants to date Edward."

"Uh huh." Jasper moved to the recliner and sat, like them, upside down. "You didn't say no outright, I take it. That's interesting."

Edward huffed. "I should have, but… I don't know. I don't know why I didn't."

"So it's not a deal breaker."

"It should be. I thought it was." Edward righted himself on the couch and rubbed at his temple, dizzy.

"This is stupid," Alice said, getting her feet on the ground. "I'm sitting here trying to decide if this makes me feel differently about her. I _like _Bella. I liked her when we were kids, and I've liked talking to her since we found her again. Yet I'm sitting here, trying to decide if this changes how I feel about her like I found out she sold drugs to kids. Why is this so bad? She's not doing anything wrong. She's not even doing anything illegal. What the heck?"

"Friendship is one thing. I don't have a problem being her friend." Edward tilted his head back and forth, stretching his neck. "I mean, as a friend, I would worry about her safety. And why she's doing this, but it's different. I'm not the kind of guy who can share."

"What exactly do you think you're sharing?" Jasper asked.

Edward fixed him with a look. "Come on. Would you be comfortable if anyone with a credit card could see Alice's bare ass whenever they wanted?"

Jasper grinned at him. "Hell, Edward, we gave it away for free."

"What?"

Alice chuckled and shrugged at her boyfriend. "Give him nightmares."

"When we went to France last year, Alice and I spent a bit of time at the nude beach. I didn't feel like I was sharing her then." Jasper raised an eyebrow. "You said softcore, right? No penetration?"

"Nobody else is involved. It's just her in the pictures."

Jasper hummed and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Okay, let's play with this. There's nothing concrete about the idea that what Bella is doing is wrong. It's a cultural thing, pure and simple. America is a lot more prudish than other countries and for no good reason. I mean, we're not better off for it.

"My dad travelled a lot for work. He would tell me about how, in other countries, you didn't have to go to the premium channels to see nudity. Yet those countries have lower rates of teen pregnancy, STI's, all that good stuff."

He waved his hand. "Anyway. It's worth thinking about at least. If we'd been born in another country, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all."

"That's another thought," Alice said. "If Bella was an actress, like in movies or on HBO, she'd probably have sex scenes. Or hell, she'd definitely have kissing scenes. WIth other people, presumably. Would you feel differently if she was a movie actress?"

Edward frowned. Inherently, acting as a profession didn't set off any alarm bells in his head. "I wouldn't like her kissing someone else even for art," he hedged.

He couldn't pinpoint why nudity in the context of porn bothered him much more than the idea of Bella being an actress, pretending at loving relationships for an audience's entertainment with a person who wasn't him. What she was doing now should have bothered him less seeing as she was alone in her videos and photos now.

"You're not going to like everything about her or everything she does," Alice said. "That's a given."

Edward narrowed his eyes. "There are people going online right now specifically to masturbate to her nude body. You think I should be okay with that?"

Jasper snorted. "You know as well as I do it doesn't take a naked body to provide, err… material. You remember that little barista at the coffee shop when we were in school." He whistled. "Damn that ass."

Alice crossed her arms. "Oh, really. Do tell me about this barista."

Her boyfriend smirked. "Honey, you know yours is the only ass for me."

She let him sweat another second before she smiled and looked back at Edward. "And you think my fantasies were limited to the guys I dated? Let's put aside the fact I can picture them naked any time I want-so technically you're never going to have a girlfriend who someone doesn't know what she looks like naked, doing...things. But beyond that, I can tell you, while you were ogling baristas, I had a graphic imaginary sex life with my hot German professor. Damn."

"Ew. A Professor?" Jasper made a face. "Don't make me want to punch an old guy in the face. It's unsettling."

"He was thirty-two, first of all, and secondly, let's tone down the jealous urges, bucko."

Jasper saluted her.

"It's...Maybe it's the money thing," Edward said. "She sells her body. That seems so cheap."

"As opposed to the things the rest of us do for money?" Jasper snorted. "The shit we put up with from customers and superiors and pain-in-the-ass coworkers all with a smile on our face. Theoretically speaking, modesty is the least of what we've sacrificed in the name of a little green. Most of us, anyway."

"So you're saying I'm overreacting? There's no reason I should have a problem with this?"

"Hell, I don't know," Jasper said. He took Alice by the arm and pulled her down with him on the recliner, studying her features for a minute. "Thing is-we do live in _this _culture. We have whatever ideas we have in our heads. I wouldn't like it. It wouldn't be an easy thing to deal with."

"You only need to know if you're interested enough in her to try," Alice said. "That's all dating is. Trying people out to see if they fit." She nuzzled the side of Jasper's head.

Jasper turned his head to press a soft kiss to her temple, but then he chuckled.

"What?" Edward asked.

"Just… this was every boy's fantasy, wasn't it? When we first stumbled on porn, glorious porn. Every boy had that fantasy to fuck the centerfold girl. You can do it."

"Crass asshole."

"Oh, give me a break. Don't try to tell me you haven't thought about it."

Edward had thought about it. That was half the problem. He'd been thinking about Bella and sex in some form or fashion since he was a teenager. He'd imagined how she'd blush when he touched her.

It was jarring-and yet so titillating-to think of her in the role of the wild cat. Edward had more than one fantasy about her pushing him back on the bed-the couch, the backseat of the car-and straddling him.

He leaned forward, rubbing at his eyes.

"Twin, if it's going to give you this much angst, you have to go for it," Alice said.

Edward stared. "What the hell kind of sense does that make?"

"She's under your skin. You walk away now, without knowing what you're missing, you're going to wonder for the rest of your life. And you're not good at that."

_**~0~**_

He tried to forget her. There was no reason she should be so important. She was a high school friend whom he'd recently reconnected with. That was all.

Why couldn't he just tell himself it was a bad idea and be done with it?

It was the weekend, and Edward was well aware of the traffic conditions on the way to Orange County. He'd looked. For once, traffic would have cooperated. He could be there in thirty minutes. He could surprise her.

Instead, he turned on the TV and flipped channels. There was a Firefly marathon on that caught his interest. Space cowboys and government plots were a good distraction until he remembered Inara.

Inara who was a prostitute in a culture where that position was valued and respected. In the Firefly universe, for a companion to _choose _you as a client was a high honor, and an asshole who forgot himself would be blacklisted. Edward had seen the series before, but he hadn't given much thought to Inara's profession other than to feel sorry for Mal for being in love with her, and that was a vaguely misogynistic idea now that he was overthinking things. He'd never thought to express sympathy the for the female characters who fell for players.

So this was how it was going to be. Every song on the radio, every TV show, every movie was going to remind him of her.

"Point to you, Swan," he muttered, digging out his phone. He sent a text.

**Do you like mini-golf?**

He felt like an idiot the second he sent the text. Mini-golf? Why would a girl like that like mini-golf? But it was one of his go-to dates.

Edward was about to send a retraction when he got a text back.

_**The one sport in the world I can play? Cullen, be careful what you're starting. I can and will kick your ass at mini-golf.**_

His cheek twitched as he tried to imagine competitive Bella, fierce in battle with loop-de-loops and swinging pendulums. He wondered if she would bounce up and down if she got a hole-in-one. The woman was a mystery to him, equal parts adorable and vixen.

An adorable vixen.

Alice was right. He wasn't committing to her. And apparently he _was _interested enough to try and figure out his mixed feelings about how she made her money. That as all he needed to know for now.

**Remember you said that when I'm kicking your ass. Are you free tomorrow?**

_**Is this a friends thing or is this a date?**_

Edward snorted. She was direct, and it charmed him.

**A date.**

_**Are you busy tonight? Gotta admit when I mini-golf, the words balls and stroke tend to come up in conversation.**_

Edward banged his head on the back of the couch, laughing at himself and how amused he was. Shaking his head, he tapped out a response.

**I'm sorry. Are you a twelve-year-old boy?**

_**Fifteen strokes to get it in the hole. Come on.**_

He was busy thinking up a good comeback when his phone chimed again.

_**Don't judge me just because sports are sexually suggestive.**_

Reading between the lines, he wondered if his apparent silence had made her self-conscious. Maybe she wasn't as blasé and confident about everything as she appeared.

The idea she was just a little flustered about him did wonders for his ego.

**I'm only going to judge you if it takes fifteen strokes to get it in the hole.**

_**Please. That was my prediction for you.**_

**I'll be there in forty minutes, Swan. Be ready.**

_**Are you going to impress me with your ball and stroke skills?**_

Again, Edward had to laugh, but he couldn't deny the twinge of discomfort that curled in the pit of his belly.

The rub of it was, if Bella had been any other girl, he'd have just chalked her words up to normal flirting. But then again, on a second date, he wouldn't have known as much about Bella as he did. Whenever she was suggestive, it was Ramona Ryder he pictured not Bella Swan. The image stoked something hot in the pit of his belly, but at the same time…

Edward sighed. He didn't know. He didn't know what the heck he was doing.

**Forty minutes. Then we'll talk about my ball and stroke skills.**

It only took him a few minutes to get ready-better jeans, contacts rather than glasses. Before he left, curiosity drove him to refresh his tumblr feed. Sure enough, Ramona had posted. It was a selfie pic of her, head cocked, smiling at the camera with bright eyes and a secretive smile.

_I just feel pretty today, _the caption read.

He smiled and thought maybe her feeling pretty was connected with him asking her on another date. It didn't have to be. It was a fact, after all. She was pretty. More than merely pretty, she was beautiful.

Refreshing the post, his eyes strayed to the like and reblog count.

She was beautiful, and he wasn't the only one who thought it.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered, fishing his keys out of his pocket and heading out the door.

* * *

**A/N: My thanks to Barburella and songster for their loveliness.**

**How we doing, pretties? I missed you.**


	6. I'll Double Your Entendre

**A/N: Thank you for your patience. Let's go on a date!**

* * *

At that point, Edward didn't know what he expected and, as per usual, he didn't know what he wanted. Women often dressed sexy for dates, and he appreciated the hell out of a well dressed woman. But then again, it was just mini golf. He didn't want to, but he thought he'd wonder what she was trying to prove.

"Overthinking it," he murmured to himself as he got out of his car. It seemed to be a trend with his interactions with Bella.

As usual, Bella never did what he expected. She answered the door and she looked… She was a mess. Her hair was up in a bun that was coming undone in every direction. She was wearing a Darth Vader apron that was stained liberally. Actually, most everything about her was liberally stained, including her cheeks. "I know, I know," she said. "I don't like being the late girl, but I have a good excuse."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. Too shocked to do anything else, he let her lead him.

Her kitchen was a bigger mess than she was, but she took a clean spoon and dipped it into a bowl on the counter. "Are you allergic to anything?"

"No."

"Then taste this." She held the spoon, covered in a rich-looking chocolate frosting, up to him, her free hand cupped beneath to catch any drops.

Bemused now, he dipped his head to catch the chocolate on his tongue, his eyes on her until the taste registered. "Mmm." He licked his lips, lapping up as much of the flavor as he could. "That's really good."

Her grin could have lit the whole city. "Vegan chocolate frosting. Non-dairy dark chocolate and full fat coconut milk."

"That's vegan?"

"Course. You can't have a vegan eatery without a few desserts, so I'm trying a few things. We're going to have the cookies and bars-the stuff people can take with them." She looked up, and she seemed as startled as he felt to find they were so close together. She shouldn't have been surprised. She'd stepped toward him, but he had leaned down toward her.

Bella cleared her throat, blinking. "But, I, uh...But I want to add a bit of decadence."

He smiled and reached past her to dip his finger in her batter. Her eyes darkened as he put the finger to his lips, licking it off. "I'd say this is a good start."

Her tongue darted out, and he would swear he could read her mind. She wanted to lick the frosting right off his tongue. Or maybe that was his wishful thinking because what he really wanted was to share the taste directly from his lips to hers.

She took a step back and turned away from him, putting down her spoon to pick up a forkful of something else. "Try this."

SInce he'd been too busy looking at her, he had no idea what he was eating until it was melting on his tongue. He moaned. It was… Well, he didn't want to call it a hooker moan, but it was an apt description. "Jesus Christ, that's good."

She laughed. It was such a pretty sound, Edward couldn't feel too embarrassed about the noise he'd made. He chewed, savoring both the rich flavor and Bella's smile. She was proud, and she damn well should have been. "Vegan chocolate pie with a strawberry compote," she said.

"Mmhmm." He let his eyes drift to her cheek. "So what's this one?"

Her brows crinkled. "What?"

He touched the dollop of something colorful on her cheek and watched as she flushed red. He chuckled, cupping her cheek as he tried to wipe the smudge away. He laughed when it only got worse with his efforts. "Oh, man." He hid a smile behind his hand.

She narrowed her eyes at him and grabbed up a clean spatula to look at herself. She gasped. "Holy crap. I'm a Picasso painting."

"It's a good look on you." He winked.

Her smile curled up on one side. "Uh huh." She picked up her frosting spoon again.

He rolled his eyes affectionately and didn't resist when she dotted frosting around his face in a design that suited her. "There," she said, smugly satisfied with her work.

"Very nice, Swan, but I'm not sure this is golf-course appropriate."

"I need five minutes," she said, untying her apron.

He swiped at his face. "Apparently, so do I."

_**~0~**_

"I want the blue ball."

Edward pressed his lips together. For some reason, it struck him as funny that any adult person would care what color ball they got, but the attendant just nodded, looking bored. He turned to Edward. "Do you have a preference, sir?"

Still trying to stifle his laughter, Edward shook his head. "No, I'm fine with whatever ball you want to give me."

"I bet you do," he heard Bella murmur under her breath.

He leaned closer to her. "I heard that."

The attendant handed over their putters, and Edward took them. When he and Bella turned away, he didn't hand over her putter right away but instead poked at her with the hilt. "Hey, hey, hey. That's unsportsmanlike conduct," she said, grabbing at the thing.

He held her by the shoulder an arm's length away from him, teasing. "First thing's first. I need to know the competitive edge you get from a blue ball."

"Well, I'm a woman, so I'd say I have a pretty big competitive edge with blue balls."

He grinned. She'd called it. She really couldn't help herself. He hefted her putter and leaned in closer to her. "As a gentleman, I think it's fair to share _my _competitive edge. See, being male, I have a pretty big advantage with a stick." He held the putter out to her. "Keep it below the waist," he said, pointing to the wooden board of rules they were passing.

"Not that big of an advantage, slick."

"How do you know?" He stopped himself just before he put his foot in his mouth. _How do you know? You haven't seen __**my **__junk. _He wouldn't have meant it judgmentally, but it wasn't something he could laugh about.

Luckily, she didn't seem to notice his near gaff. "I'm just saying. Don't discount my skill with a stick."

Edward pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. This woman was going to drive him crazy before the night was out, he could already tell.

He cleared his throat and gestured at the courses. "So, which path?"

She tilted her head, giving him a look. "Come on. You know what I'm going to say."

"Well, I know you like it hard, Bella." He winked at her, enjoying seeing the fluster on her face. "But there are two hard courses, so which way do you want it?"

"Four is my lucky number."

"Four it is. You're going to need all the luck you can get. Don't expect me to go easy on you."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's like you said. I like it hard."

It was a strange line he was walking. Right or wrong, he couldn't pretend what he knew about her didn't bother him. As a result, there was an offended voice in the back of his head. He didn't want to think about her being good at handling a stick.

Most of him, though, wanted that bitchy little voice to shut the hell up. He'd been on enough dates to know how rare it was for conversation to be this easy between them. And why should he have a problem with her double entendres when he was returning her barb for barb?

It was natural to overthink things in the early stages of dating but not like this. He was driving himself crazy, and what was the point of that when he was having fun? It was a second date. He should have been gauging the likelihood he would get a good-night kiss, not obsessing over the possible truth behind Bella's lewd jokes.

"Oh, no." He was so distracted trying to curb his thoughts, he'd missed the bank on the third hole. As a result, his ball headed over the bridge lopsided and veered off into the water with a plunk. "Damn."

Bella emitted a sound that drove the irritation-minigolf or not, he was a competitive person-right out of his head. "What the heck was that?"

She looked at him perplexed. "What? Why are you asking me? You're the one who can't handle your ball."

"That's not what I'm talking about. You cackled."

"I did not."

"You did. That was a full on wicked witch cackle. That's the only thing you could call it." He would also call it adorable, but he wasn't one to mince words.

Bella pressed her lips together, her face going red not only with a blush but with the effort of not laughing again. It didn't work. She cracked up and cackled.

"See?" Edward said, poking her in the side. "There it is again. You're a wicked witch."

"Uh huh. Is that your excuse? Are you going to try to tell me I sent your ball off course with my voodoo skills?"

He fixed her with a gimlet eye. "I wouldn't put it past you."

"Go get your hands wet, sunshine. People are going to catch up with us soon."

That was how Edward found himself on his belly, cringing as he reached into the water to retrieve his ball. He happened to glance over his shoulder before he straightened up and caught Bella ogling him. "Having fun up there?"

She waggled her eyebrows. "It's not a bad view."

He pretended he wasn't pleased by her remark, and she tisked. "Well, if you don't want to get stared at, don't wear jeans that tight." She winked and offered him a hand to help him up. He took it with the hand that was all wet, of course.

She didn't let him go immediately when he was on his feet. "Try it again, bucko. Remember, the ball goes in the hole over there." She pointed and stepped closer to him pushing onto the balls of her feet so she could speak near his ear. "And because I'm feeling benevolent today, I'm not even going to count your strokes."

The girl did make it difficult for him to use his big head. Edward took a deep breath as she stepped away from him. "Maybe you should count my strokes. This is the only the third hole. You're going to rue the day."

"Bring it."

Not everything out of their mouths was dirty. As they played, they talked about their family, Forks, school, and what they'd been doing-besides the obvious-since high school.

On the eighth hole, he got his payback. Or rather, he should have, but Bella's mess-up proved to be a bit more violent. It was an up the ramp, through the opening and closing door of the castle type of hole. Bella hit the ball too hard, and as a result, it had ricocheted off the closing door. She squeaked, jumping out of the way. The ball whized past them, hit a rock, shot up and hit Edward so hard in the arm, he cried out.

"Gah. Edward. Oh, man. I'm sorry."

"Jesus H." Edward's eyes watered, and he blinked sporadically because he didn't want to cry. He chuckled, and hung his head, shaking it as he kept his free hand gripped over his wounded arm. "Bella, if you were that pissed, you should have told me."

"That was crazy. I'm really sorry."

She looked so bereft, he laughed again and tapped her chin to get her to look up. "Somehow, I think I'm going to survive. I won't be beat by your pathetic attempts to disqualify me, witch."

That brought her grin back. She caught his hand and pulled him forward. "Here. I'll kiss it better."

Bella didn't kiss his arm. Oh, no. Instead, she kissed him right on the lips. It was a quick smack, all sweetness and surprise, like they were grade school kids. She kissed him, and he stood there, wide-eyed while she ran away to look for her ball. He blinked, stuck on stupid, watching her. She was blushing. Even her neck and the tips of her ears were red.

Her kiss had been innocent-a tease that he could easily brush off as not serious if he wanted.

But he wanted serious.

As she stood, triumphant with ball in hand, he was right behind her. She jumped, startled at his nearness, but before she could say anything, he took her wrist and spun her toward him. He ducked his head and kissed her. Properly. Without the slightest bit of childish innocence. He slid his fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her neck to bring her closer. He closed his eyes, catching her yelp of surprise and the little whimper that came after.

Her hands were strong and firm at his back, and her lips responded to his, matching his fervor kiss for kiss.

This wasn't a normal second date kind of kiss. The intensity of it made him woozy, and when they broke to breathe, Edward was hanging onto her as much to keep himself upright as to hold her close.

They blinked at each other as though stunned.

"Do you mind if we play through?"

Edward and Bella jumped apart, disentangling from each other's arms. Edward rubbed the back of his neck, trying to remember how the English language worked. "Yeah. Sure. Go ahead. Sorry," he said.

Bella was sitting on the bench at the head of the hole. He couldn't read her expression. She was still flushed, her eyes unfocused, but she turned toward him as he sat beside her.

There was a strange energy between them. Everything had changed, and it had happened too quickly. When Bella raised her eyes to his her smile was too small. It was genuine but tempered around the edges with a new vulnerability. The dial of their relationship had flipped from interested and casual to something beyond that, and that change brought with it a whole new set of rules.

He had the power to hurt her now, and they both knew it.

Edward brushed the back of his knuckles down her cheek. Right then, she looked more than ever like the teenage girl he'd kept in his thoughts for years. He tried again to make the angel of his memories and raunchy Ramona coalesce into the woman he'd been getting to know over these last few weeks. He sighed because the last thing he ever wanted to do was be careless with any woman.

"Come on," he said after another minute without a firm answer coming to him. The couple who'd played through their game had moved on to another hole. "I'm still going to kick your ass, wounded or not. That'll show you, witch."

That seemed to break the tension in the air. Her smile was much wider as she got to her feet. "Bring it, Cullen."

In another hole, they were back to joking and talking. Bella giggled with a witch's cackle when they got to another bridge, and Edward's ball once again veered off the bridge. Bella gasped and looked at him. "Oh, snap. Maybe I _am _a witch. Quick. Let's find a broom. There's something I want to try."

Edward was able to retrieve his ball on his hands and knees this time, and Bella stood over him, still grinning. "You have to face it, Edward. Your ball just likes to be wet."

He glanced over his shoulder and splashed her, making her hop around and sputter. "That got in my mouth. That's disgusting. Do you know how many balls have been in there?"

The second to last hole was a simple one. The hole itself was protected by a hanging log, which Edward set to swinging wildly.

"I got this," Bella said as she set up her shot. "I'm used to dodging sticks."

He laughed, but she was right. She got her third hole-in-one and, as they were neck and neck, sealed her victory for the night. She did a little dance of triumph.

It took him five strokes to make it past the swinging log, but he couldn't say he minded the teasing when she was still gleeful from her victory.

"So what do you think?" he asked as they stared at the last hole. "We could move on to another course."

She gasped in mock horror. "What? And not pay for another game. That's pretty morally reprehensible of you. Why do the good girls always want the bad boys?" She shook her head to herself.

"Oh, Isabella." He took her hand and drew her closer to him so they were nose to nose. "We both know you're not a good girl."

Her breath caught.

Good god, he wanted to kiss her again. He wanted it so badly, he thought he was going to go out of his mind with the need. But if he started kissing her, he wasn't going to want to stop. He sighed and took a cautious step backward, struggling to remember what he'd been about to say before he got too close. "Morally reprehensible my left foot. You're hungry, aren't you?"

She smiled again, her eyes sparkling with humor. She squeezed their still joined hands. "I'm wasting away before your eyes. What kind of a date is this that you would let a girl starve to death?"

"What can I say? I'm a horrible human being." He took her ball from her and rolled them both up the ramp. "So. What do you feel like?"

"What's wrong with here?"

He looked at her. "You want me to feed you arcade quality pizza and hot dogs?"

"Not hot dogs. I can't take balls and weiners in one night. It's too much even for my filthy mind."

He lifted his free hand to cover his mouth. "A tee hee. Weiners and balls. Tee hee hee."

"You know, it's considered bad form to make fun of your date."

"Ah, that's what I've been doing wrong. No wonder I'm still single."

They ended up back at the wine and tapas bar where they'd gone with Tanya and Alice. Edward couldn't take his eyes off her. She was smart, funny, and beautiful. And when they walked out to the parking lot, hand in hand, the desire to kiss her hand turned into need.

He was beyond intrigued. He was beyond interested. He was falling. Fast. And even though he knew that meant he needed to think before he acted, she was irresistible when she was right in front of him.

Edward put a hand on her hip, facing her and took a step forward. She stepped backward but didn't pull away. With another step, she was pressed back against his car. He put his other hand on the roof, leaning in, breathing in the sweet Moscato on her breath as she looked up at him. The vulnerability was still there but so was a reflection of the want he felt. She wasn't stopping him. So he tilted his head and kissed her.

This third kiss was slow and serious. Unlike their second kiss, which had been a chaotic blast of heat, this was a simmer. Warmth spread from his lips through his body to the center of his being. A controlled burn, because if he let it loose he was just as likely to bend her over the hood and have her right there in the parking lot. And he did want that, but he also wanted this.

He shivered when she touched his shoulder and again as her fingers slid up into his hair. She made tiny sighs, and her hand at the small of his back pushed him closer. He could feel every movement of her body, pinned as she was between him and the car.

When their kisses had dwindled to small, sweet pecks, he pulled back, though just enough he could rest his forehead against hers. He ran his fingers over her lips, and she kissed them. It was intimate. Too intimate for second dates and too intimate for them not to be on the same page.

All things considered, he was glad he'd kissed her there in the parking lot. If he'd kissed her goodnight on her doorstep, she might have invited him in, and he would have said yes.

He'd gotten in over his head in the space of a few hours and he wasn't sure he minded.

"Come on." He tugged her up off the car so he could open the passenger door. "I'll take you home."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks so much to barburella and to jessypt.**

**SO!**

**Thoughts?**


	7. I'm Feeling

**A/N: Thanks so much for your patience. This Edward is hard to talk to. Tight lipped mofo!**

* * *

"Hey!" Edward protested and leaped to his feet as his phone was yanked out of his hands.

Alice danced out of his reach in a game they'd perfected as children. "Little brother, when you can't stop looking at your phone long enough to get three sentences in a row out of your mouth, you lose your phone privileges."

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't find your babbling about the Paris fashion show riveting. Give it."

"Uh huh." Alice was way too nimble for anyone's good. How she kept darting out of reach while never taking her eyes off the phone was beyond him. "So it has nothing to do with you cyberstalking Bella's tumblr page, right?"

Edward snatched back his phone, glaring at his sister. He'd have come up with some lie if she were anyone else, but she wasn't. She was his twin, and she already knew he was full of shit. "If I have to share her with the world, I might as well reap the benefits of getting to know what she's thinking."

Alice stood there, hands on her hips, staring at him for three full seconds before she gave him a smack upside the back of his head.

"What the hell, Alice?"

She sat next to him. "That's a stupid comment to make from the person who got home on Saturday night and updated his status to 'I'm feeling sleepy.' You think she isn't cyberstalking you just as hard as you're cyberstalking her? Was that the kind of crap you wanted her to post on her Facebook? Or were you looking for a video of her playing with herself, thinking about you?"

"Don't be disgusting."

Alice rolled her eyes. "You're lucky I've been busy the last couple of days. I wanted to kick your ass when I saw that update. Sleep." She scoffed. "What kind of bullshit was that?"

"It was late when I got home. I was tired."

"You went out of your way to make a bullshit post after what must have been a good date. You posted that knowing she would see it. You're playing with her, and that's fucked up."

"That wasn't my intention." He ran a hand through his hair, agitated.

Alice tilted his her head, studying him. Then she laughed. "Oh, man. You're really fucked, aren't you? That's what your problem is. Usually you're with a chick and you're in control, but you're out of your mind with Bella, aren't you?"

"Gee, and this whole time I thought my problem was the girl I'm dating sells her body."

"No, the problem you're having is that the girlfriends you've had never hit you this hard. You never get this deep."

Edward was already shaking his head. "That's ridiculous. We've had two dates and have technically only known each other for a few weeks."

"What does that have to do anything? Edward, I knew Jasper was the one for me the first night I met him."

"Come off it. You two were friends for years before you got together."

Alice gave him a cool look. "Yeah, we were. Imagine going through that. Every time you two idiots went out trolling the bars for babes...well, it didn't feel good. But just because it took me a few years to admit it doesn't mean I didn't know from minute one."

"That's not the same. You had a feeling, and you still had years to get on the same page. Years _after _you knew him well."

"Maybe, but that's not the point. Maybe all this angst isn't about her nudes. Maybe the nudes are an excuse. Love is scary, little brother."

"I'm not in love with her."

"Sure you're not."

"I'm-"

The sound of his phone chiming had him distracted instantly.

_**Busy tomorrow?**_

Edward was suddenly glad his sister couldn't pick up the erratic beat of his heart. She did, however, cuddle up to him so she could see what he was staring at. She cackled. "Oh, good. Looks like she's not going to wait for you to get your head out of your ass."

Choosing to ignore his sister, Edward texted back.

**Other than work? No.**

"Are you sure you're not too sleepy?" Alice asked, and she flicked his ear.

_**There's a film I want to see at Sundance Sunset. Indie film. One night only. You want to be my date?**_

"Movie dates are code for canoodling in the back seat," Alice said.

"See, this is what happens when you're an uncultured swine. You don't go to a Sundance movie to canoodle. It's not some Michael Bay, pointless action flick like you and Jazz lgo to," he teased.

"Maybe you shouldn't get with Bella. I don't know if I could stand hanging out with two pretentious assholes."

_**~0~**_

Alice and Edward worked within a few blocks of each other and so carpooled to work on the days she couldn't work from home. That day, before Edward got out of the car, Alice grabbed his arm.

"I'm not kidding. That 'I'm feeling sleepy' crap you pulled is devastating. You're lucky Bella was strong enough to get over it and stupid enough to ask _you _out. You always say you don't like games, little brother. Don't play games with her. I get that what she does for a living is an issue. We all have issues. You don't get to claim the moral high ground by default."

As he made his way to the parking lot at the end of the day, Edward wondered if there was some truth to his sister's claim. He wanted to dismiss the idea the status update was an asshole move. He'd been sleepy.

But the reason he was so damn exhausted was he'd spent the whole car ride back from Orange County driving himself insane. Maybe he posted that status update because he was sleepy, and maybe he was just a little bit bitter about the fact Bella had him tied up in knots. Part of him was irritated at the fact he had to think so hard around her. It was supposed to be easy, wasn't it? You like someone. They like you and that was that.

Except that Alice was also right that the relationships he'd had never ran this deep. He liked the women he'd been with, and they'd liked him. In the end, that had never been enough.

Bella was already in her car waiting for him when he got outside. She didn't see him at first, and he was able to watch her for a few seconds. She was rocking out to whatever she was listening to. His lips quirked as he fought a grin, but as usual, his enjoyment of her won out.

Maybe his life would be simpler if he didn't like her, but he did. He really did.

He was probably smiling like a moron when he got in the car.

"Hey, stud." She flashed him a grin as she turned down the volume. "How was work?"

"You know. Working with an injury is never fun. Even if most of my job includes a lot of typing."

Bella's brows furrowed in concern. "An injury? What's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?"

"Typical abusive behavior, Swan. Pretending you had nothing to do with this." He rolled up his sleeve, showing off the bruise from her golf ball. It was only beginning to fade.

"Oh, wow." She winced in sympathy, skimming her fingers over the discolored skin. Her eyes found his. "I really got you, didn't I?"

A shiver went down his spine at her touch. Her head was close enough to him he could have kissed her easily, but he had other ideas. He twisted his shoulder toward her. "Make it better?"

Amusement cut through the guilt in her eyes, and she smiled again. She held his gaze while she leaned forward to brush her lips over his skin. "Better?"

"Hmm, that's not what you did before."

There was a surprised kind of pleasure in her eyes, like he'd just answered a question she hadn't asked. He had exactly one second to feel like an ass-Alice was right, his online indifference had to have hurt her-before she was kissing him.

It was a soft kiss and quick. He pressed back against her, raising his hand to cup her cheek briefly before she pulled away.

One question answered. They still weren't trying to be just friends.

_**~0~**_

The movie didn't start for an hour and a half.

"You want to get dinner?" Bella asked.

"Sure."

"Know any place good around here?"

"I'm not too familiar with Sunset, actually."

"Well, how about we walk until we find something that calls to us?"

Edward offered her his hand and smiled when she took it. "That sounds like a good plan to me."

By the time they'd settled for a little bistro that didn't have a long wait, Bella was regaling him with stories about the interviews she'd been conducting.

"Oh, they're adorable. Some of the things they say. You know I'm not one for business suits or anything like that, but I had this one kid come straight from the beach. Flip flops, beach trunks, one of those tank top things that actually gets smaller in the back, and, _and _sunglasses he wore the whole time. _Inside_."

Edward laughed. "How do you know he came from the beach though?"

"Oh, I could be stereotyping, I suppose, but the sand he left all over my store and my office is pretty damning evidence."

"Well, there is that. So I guess he's out then."

Bella shrugged. "I don't know."

Edward raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously we're going to have to have a talk about bringing the beach with him, but just because he's a surfer dude doesn't mean he can't be a good employee."

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at that."

She eyed him over her tea, but she didn't comment. "I like his vibe."

"Oh, well. As long as he has the right vibe."

"I have my own vibes," she said with a wink. "But don't worry. If I do hire him, I'll make sure to make some more steadfast choices too. There's this other kid, James…"

_**~0~**_

The movie was bad.

Edward shifted in his seat, bored out of his mind. His distraction was dangerous. Being in the dark with Bella so close was dangerous in and of itself. Without the movie to divert his attention, he was beginning to fixate on the random ways he wanted to touch her.

She probably wouldn't mind holding his hand. He pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth, inwardly chiding himself for the juvenile trick that came to mind. If he left his hand palm up on the armrest beside him, she might take the initiative herself.

But then again, he wanted to do so much more than hold her hand. He suspected if she put her hand in his, he would work his fingers up the inside of her arm, or maybe he would put his hand on her knee.

Edward jolted when felt the press of a toe against his ankle. She'd kicked off her shoe so she could tease him. He glanced at her, seeing that while her eyes were on the screen, she was smirking.

There was nothing funny about the movie they were watching.

Smirking himself, he gave in to temptation. He put his hand on her knee, brushing his fingertips along the inside of her leg. He turned and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She sucked in a breath, but she didn't stop him. She found his hand and began caressing his fingers. For something so simple, it was a surprisingly intimate.

He readjusted himself in his seat, turning his attention to pressing tiny kisses in a path from her cheek up to her ear. He grinned against her skin when she swallowed a small squeak. "Shhh," he whispered in her ear. "Watch the movie."

Bella huffed. "It's a bad movie," she whispered back.

He chuckled, letting his warm breath kiss her skin. "It is a bad movie."

"Shh," someone said.

Edward put two fingers to her chin and turned her head toward him. "Yeah. Shh," he said, and he kissed her to keep both their mouths busy.

_**~0~**_

After the movie, they ducked into a bar. That was his second mistake. Drinking when he'd spent the last half of the movie getting progressively drunker on kissing Bella. He'd had half a mind to pull her back to her car, but no. That couldn't be right.

Not yet.

But all the questions he had in his head mixed with alcohol and lust had him in a strange mood. Still, they had a good time at the bar, picking apart the movie and sharing kisses that lingered longer as time went on.

Eventually, though, they had to move on. They were almost back to her car, and Bella was talking again about how nervous she was for the restaurant to open, when the words slipped out.

"If your restaurant is successful, will you keep doing what you're doing?"

Bella's step faltered. Her hand slipped from his.

"I'm sorry," Edward said, though he wasn't sure that he was sorry for asking. He was sorry that the happy atmosphere around them had dissipated in an instant.

"No, I want you to be able to ask about it." She stepped away a few paces, wringing her hands. "If this is going to work, we have to be able to talk."

"But I didn't want you to be upset."

Bella shook her head. "You didn't do anything, really." She reached for his hand and played with the tips of his fingers. "I know this isn't simple for you, but it's not easy for me either. I can understand your discomfort, but I have limits." She looked up at him. "Whenever you ask me something about my work, or I can see you're thinking about it, I'm afraid you're going to say something I can't put up with.

"I'm realistic. I wish this wasn't a problem for you the same way I'm sure you wish I'd never taken even a picture. I don't know where you are with this." She gestured between them. "But I'm at that annoying point where I want you to think everything about me is amazing. Obviously, you're ashamed of what I do."

"I never said that," Edward said.

"Didn't you?" Bella leaned against her car, wrapping her hands around her arms. "I get that you're trying to figure out if you can accept this about me. And this part isn't your fault. But this is the first time in years I've wished I was someone else. Someone with a normal job."

"I'm not ashamed of you." He took her hand again. "I don't understand. I really don't understand, but it's not shame. I don't think you should be ashamed."

"What's to understand? It was a business decision. That's all."

"Is it?" Edward raked a hand through his hair. "I just want to know how it started. Why would you even think of it in the first place? Did someone-" He bit his tongue, but it was too late.

Bella narrowed her eyes. "Did someone what?"

Edward shook his head. "Never mind. That's-"

"You're not one of those who think the only people who get into this kind of work have been hurt that way, are you?"

Edward swallowed hard, wishing his head was clearer than it was. "That day in the Twisted Vine, you said Mike Newton was a horny, handsy bastard."

Bella gave a humorless laugh, pushing off the car. "You want to feel sorry for me?" she said, beginning to pace. "You don't want to be ashamed of me, but you want to feel sorry for me? Because you can't believe I would choose this?"

"That's not what I meant."

"I did choose this," Bella said.

God, she was fabulous when she was furious. Her eyes sparked and her cheeks flushed, and he was just making a mess of this conversation. His eyes followed her back and forth trek toward and away from him.

"No, I've never been raped. I've never come close. Have guys touched me when I didn't want them to or say creepy shit? Well, yeah, because yes, all women, but-"

He caught her hand as she passed and pulled her up against him. Her words cut off in a yelp as she collided with him, and he didn't give her a chance to continue her tirade. He kissed her. Hard. He pinned her back against her car and snaked his hand down around the back of her leg. He tugged and she responded, wrapping one leg up around his waist.

"I'm sorry," he said between kisses. He moved his lips down to her neck, tilting her head back so he could kiss her throat. "I'm not ashamed, and I don't want you to be ashamed."

Shame was still the wrong word, but he wasn't going to come up with the right word today.

Bella sighed and cupped his cheeks, bringing his face back up. She kissed him, urging his mouth open. She tasted like the cherries she'd asked for with her Pepsi. Her hands running up and down his back sent such a thrill through him, his nipples hardened.

Among other things.

He pulled back.

Bella's hands rested on his shoulders. She panted-they were both breathless-and licked her lips. Her eyes fluttered closed briefly and she took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, they were calmer. She scratched her fingers through the tendrils of hair at the base of his neck.

"What I'm doing...there _is _a finite timeline with it." Her lips quirked up at one side. "We're not as young as we used to be, Cullen."

She stroked his cheek. "I don't know what I'll do if the restaurant succeeds. I've seen enough _Kitchen Nightmares _to know it can take years for a restaurant to fail. But I won't always be this. I know that."

Edward moved his hand to her hip and pulled her toward him for another kiss. "Witch," he whispered against her lips and kissed her again.

* * *

******A/N: Many thanks to songster and barburella. **

**How we doing, kids?**


	8. All In

**A/N: Quick Tumblr lesson. On tumblr, you follow people, and whatever they post or reblog (posting other people's stuff) shows up on your feed. And then you can reblog anything someone else posts.**

* * *

"What the hell are you doing?"

Edward craned his head as he pushed his glasses back up his nose and grinned at Bella, who was looking down at him, hands on her hips while amusement lit up her features. "I'm sitting in my chair upside down," he said.

"I can see that, but why?"

"I do this when I'm thinking."

"What are you thinking about?"

He sighed, looking up at her pretty face. "You."

Her cheeks tinged pink. She knelt down, taking his face between her hands and kissed him.

Spiderman kisses. Awesome. He brushed his thumb across the skin behind her ear.

Bella pulled back, drawing the back of her knuckles down her cheek as she looked on him, her expression adoring and contemplative. "You know what our problem is?"

"What's that?" he asked.

"Things between us changed too quickly, didn't they? I mean, I'm not the only one who thinks that, right?"

He stroked his fingers down her neck. "I think we're on the same page there. That's a problem."

"No. The problem is things changed before we could get to the easy, casual sex." She sighed with mock gravity. "That would have been fun. Now we have to be more careful, because it will mean something different."

Edward cocked his head. "Do you do casual sex often?"

The expression on her face darkened, and she pulled away from him completely.

"Bella, I didn't mean anything by that." Edward righted himself and slid off his seat onto the floor and faced her. "It's an honest question. I'm no monk, and I'm no stranger to casual sex. It gets a little boring, I think."

She studied him for a moment, but then her defenses slipped. "Yeah, I can get behind that. There are only so many first times you can have before the novelty wears off. It's nice to get to that point where someone knows you so well, they know exactly how to touch you." She settled into a cross-legged position. "To answer your question, yeah, I'm a fan of casual sex, but personally, I can only have sex with people I like, casual or otherwise."

Edward hummed, his eyes darting down to her lips. "Do you like me, Bella?"

Her lips twitched and she came to sit beside him, her back against the couch. She put her arm around his shoulders and caught his lips. She whimpered into his mouth as he brushed his fingers against her side, not quite tickling, not quite caressing.

She sighed, pulling back to kiss his chin. "Yes, Sally Field, I like you. I really like you. Don't change the subject."

Her fingers played with the hairs at the nape of his neck. Her expression turned serious as she looked at him. "So are you in or are you out?"

Blunt as ever. Edward ducked his head, inhaling the scent of her skin and her hair. "How often do people recognize you from your site?"

She laughed, cupping his face again. "I've been doing this for three years, and you're the first one."

His eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Do you know how many people have looked at my site? Total?"

"Tell me."

"In three years, about fifteen thousand. Total. And not all of them were subscriptions. A lot browsed the sample section and left it at that. My tumblr account has another two thousand followers. I'm assuming at least some of those are part of my membership base. At least, my metrics support that theory. And of all my advertising posts, so to speak, not a single one of them can be considered Tumblr famous. I think the most popular one has been reblogged two hundred times. These numbers are worldwide. There are over three million people in Orange County alone."

Edward wrapped an arm around her waist, bringing her tight against him. "So, some might say me finding you was fate."

Bella raised an eyebrow. "What? You're telling me I'm _not_ more trouble than I'm worth?"

"Have you read Greek myths, Bella? Fate has always been an asshole."

"Then I am more trouble than I'm worth. You know what happens to people in Greek myths. They get fucked."

Edward lunged forward, delighting in Bella's shriek as he tackled her and pinned her on her back. "Isn't that what we've been talking about?" he asked, thrusting his hips against hers for emphasis. She gasped, writhing under him, her eyes dark. He held himself up on his arms and lowered his head so they were nose to nose. "I'm done talking."

He closed that last inch that separated them, and felt the vibration of her groan on his lips. His kiss wasn't gentle. He wanted to consume her. He wanted to fill her, body and mind, and she wasn't resisting. Far from resisting, when his tongue demanded entrance, she parted her lips for him. When more of his weight settled on her, she spread her legs and wrapped them around him, her heels at his ass. She matched his kisses, and ran her fingers up his back under his shirt, digging her nails into his skin when he rutted against her.

Now that he had his hands on her, he wondered how he'd resisted. He could survive on the little moans she fed him, on the reactions he could draw from her body. She didn't sound like this when she was performing. This wasn't an act. These noises, the helpless way her hands scrambled at his back, were his.

There was entirely too much cloth separating him from her skin.

Edward rolled off her, and then pushed up onto his knees. As soon as she'd followed suit, he pulled her shirt up and off and had her bra off in the next heartbeat. Her nipples were hard and impossible to resist. He didn't try. He ducked his head and took one nipple in his mouth, nipping lightly.

"Fuck," she cried, tangling her fingers in his hair. "Christ on a tortilla."

He lifted his head with a laugh. "You're ridiculous," he said, brushing his thumb over her other nipple, lest it find itself lacking for attention.

"You're wearing too many clothes," she countered, tugging at his shirt.

He let her go long enough to take his glasses and shirt off, then he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him. This he liked. Her skin was soft beneath his fingertips. Her nipples poked at his chest. They kissed around whimpers of pleasure, each of them fumbling at the other's pants.

Somehow, between kisses and caresses, they managed to get satisfactorily naked. Bella had no sooner kicked her panties off her foot when he grabbed her. He turned her around, pressing his chest to her back as he bent her over so she caught herself on her hands. He brushed her hair back over one shoulder and took her earlobe in his mouth even as his hand snaked around her, between her legs. "Oh, god," she said, bucking back against him when he found her clit.

"Are you on something?" he asked, his voice a rumble at her ear.

"Yes."

He moved his lips to her neck, and she threw head back with a moan as he scraped his teeth along her skin. "Do you trust me?" he asked, pressing his fingers between her slick folds for emphasis. He was clean. He knew that, but that didn't mean she was comfortable without protection.

"Yes. Oh." She panted, leaning on one hand so she could bring the other up to his cheek, cupping it there. "Do you trust me?"

Even in the heat of the moment, he could hear the heavy note behind those words. Just because it felt like he shared her with faceless men didn't mean that was actually the case.

He kissed her cheek and then her lips with more care and sweetness than he had before. "Yes."

She thrust against his hand, hot, and wet, and ready for him. "Edward," she said on a breath.

He brought them both back up so they were kneeling upright. He used his knees to guide her legs apart and took his cock in his hand, teasing her entrance. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and ran the tip of his nose behind her ear. "Bella." His voice was hoarse with desire and the need to be inside her, but there was something important he needed to tell her first. "I want you to be mine. Are you?"

She reached behind her to put her hands at his sides. "God, this is coercion, you know."

He tightened his grip. "Are you?"

"Yes. Yes, yes."

He entered her then with a one, two stroke. She cried out, digging her fingers into the flesh of his ass. Edward stifled what would have been an embarrassingly loud moan right at the space where her neck met her shoulder. Her heat enveloped him, just snug and fuck-perfect.

"Fuck-perfect isn't a word," Bella said.

Edward moved his hand to her breast and pinched her nipple between her fingers. She clenched around him as her body jolted. "Do you like that?" he asked against her ear, moving in her as he rolled her nipple.

"Oh, fuck."

He gave her nipple another squeeze, drawing out another cry. "That's not the answer to that question."

"Yes. You bastard. Christ." She tilted her head, giving him better access to her neck. He latched his mouth there, nibbling and sucking as his fingers sought out sensitive spots on her body. Her hips rolled in time with his thrusts.

She was very vocal.

"You have a filthy fucking mouth when I'm filling you, don't you?" he murmured near her ear. He took her hand and guided it between her legs. "You feel that? I love how you feel."

Her hand circled him where he was pumping into her. She tilted her head against his. "It's good. So fucking good."

Knowing he wasn't going to last much longer, he moved his hand to her clit, matching the rhythm of their movements.

"Edward," she said around a whimper. She put her hand over his, and they stroked her together.

With a strangled cry, Bella pitched forward onto her hands, and then it was Edward who shouted. With her movement, he was buried so deep inside her, he almost lost himself right there. He gripped her waist hard, steadying them both as they adjusted.

"Shit. Oh, god. Oh, fuck." Apparently, this new position was touching all the right buttons. She slammed herself back against him. Only a second later, she _screamed, _and the sound of it, the feel of her walls gripping and convulsing, triggered his own release.

Bella slumped forward, her head in her arms, her ass still up in the air. Edward pulled out of her, shaky as he let himself fall to the floor on his back beside her. She crawled the couple paces to him and curled up against his side, her head on his chest. He wrapped an arm around her, wiping the sheen of sweat from her back as he tilted her head up for soft, slow kisses.

As the heat drained from them, the air was too cold on their damp skin. Bella's post coital trembling turned to shivering, and Edward pushed past the lethargy that had made his limbs boneless. He got to his feet and pulled her up into his arms.

"I can walk, you know," she said, her smirk tempered around the edges with the same tenderness he felt.

He quirked an eyebrow and set her back down, but just as quickly picked her back up again, throwing her over his shoulder this time. She yelped, giggling as she called his name. As he moved toward his bedroom, she peppered his ass with sharp, stinging smacks.

They were both laughing when he tossed her on his bed and quickly climbed over her. He attacked her without mercy, tickling her in retaliation for the spanks. He tickled her until she was writhing and howling with giggles, pleading between gasps for him to stop.

He did stop, holding himself up on one arm as he looked down at her flushed, beautiful face.

This didn't feel like their first time. How could it feel so much like she'd been a part of him forever?

He stroked her cheek with reverence and leaned in to kiss her. It was a languid kiss. He lay beside her, wrapping his comforter around them and in the feel of her under his fingertips.

An hour passed like that and neither of them spoke. They kissed, touched and stared at each other.

And then, Bella sighed. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, he knew they had to talk. She took his hand and began to play with his fingers. "So that's it? All you needed to know after all that was that you're probably not going to run into any of my customers?"

He brushed his hand up and down her side, thinking through his answer. "I don't like how I feel about what you do. It's incongruent with my worldview. I'm not a conservative by a long shot, and I thought I was above the societal conception that there's something shameful about sex."

Bella pulled back a bit so she could look at him. An amused smile played at her lips. "That's an awfully eloquent thing to say when we're naked."

He smirked and ran the tip of his finger down the bridge of her nose. "Well you _are_ distracting as hell, but I've been practicing." He sighed. "Rationally, I'm fine with it. Irrationally…I hate that other people are probably looking at you right now. I hate what they're thinking about you, and what they're doing while they think it."

His voice had gone rough and he put his hand behind his head, trying to quell the urge to roll over onto her and into her again, claiming her. _Owning _her, and wasn't that a disturbing thought?

He rolled his head to look at her. "I've watched a lot of porn, Bella."

"Hey, me too."

"And there's the other problem I have with my own problem. It makes me, at best, a hypocrite."

She nodded, her smile gentle but serious. "Yeah, it does." She let that hang between them for a moment before she rescued him. "But that's kind of the human condition, isn't it? We're a cultural mess of crap that doesn't make very much sense and yet, it's part of who we are." She ran her fingers through his hair. "So, we're doing this?"

He grinned. "I'm in, if you're in."

"Oh, baby. I'm all in."

Then he did roll over her and into her, but not because he wanted to own her. He made love to her, soft, slow and lazy. Because he adored her. Because she was his and he was hers and this was theirs.

Right then, that was the only thing that mattered.

* * *

**A/N: We're not done by a long shot.**

**My thanks to barburella and myheroin01! **

**So? How are we feeling about things now?**


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